I have been looking into it as well. Seems like it would be cost effective and really versatile. There is a great review on
http://www.sospubs.co.uk -- may 2000 issue. I also downloaded the owners manuel from emu. I have friends who swore by the previous version the emu 4000. I would think though that for any live or really any practical application that you should have a zip drive installed to save and load samples. There is no room for a harddrive and everytime you power off you lose the samples. Unless you have a scsi CD-ROM or harddrive or other medium hooked up, I would get a zip drive. Also, max the RAM as you mentioned. I am seriously considering it. My problem is how to control it. I am a guitar player and don't know if I should go the midi guitar route (
gr-33, parker or brian moore guitars -- expensive)or start out with a cheap midi keyboard (though I am not a keyboard player by any stretch of the imagination). Once I figure out the controller issues,
the esi 2000 seems like an easy purchase. Though the akai and yamaha samplers are coming down in price too, the akai having a graphical display.
